WotC, really? No...really? You can't maintain a publishing schedule?

[shadzar]

Also, Mudbunny more personally, am I misremembering them NOT doing this from the start, and only beginning to do it after the community (including yourself and myself) rallied to get some accountability from them, waaay back when the mags were new (to WotC) and pretty sloppy?

Not them, but YES, the community did have to force to get some sort of calendar out in advance so people would know, as well as get them to even publish a table of contents. BAsically trying to keep some sort of resemblance then to a magazine rather than jsut random blog entires.

As to magazines and missing deadlines, you would think in the centuries since printed publications began, someone would have learned who to manage a schedule. Where news is concerned you can expect event to change last minute, but in regards to D&D, how much really changes?

Also if you are publishing online, you can give the same time alloted as if you were to print it, but copy and paste to the online database for the rules encyclopedia, character builder, and the article all at once, and jsut have it formatted, without having to worry about time to print, sorting labels and mailing addresses, and actually mailing them out.

Cutting corners to try to wait longer to do things, is what would cause the delays. With a print magazine you can't have lst minute article replacements without everything being off since the printers have to change things and refit things in order to print before they can be mailed.

Not being able to maintain a schedule just seems like the contractor to build a house deciding not to show up to do anything today, just cause he felt like it. Maybe not the best example, but as with that case, you sooner or later stop paying the people that cannot get the job done, and find those that can and pay them instead.

If too much is being given to one person to do, then you need to find more people to spread the workload to.

The fact that delivery and "printing" of a digital media, means you have more time to get thigns ready compared to a physical copy, but doesnt mean you should try to shorten the time to get it done.

A schedule can be made if it was really wanted to, but not wanting to make a schedule and stick to it seems lazy and uninterested in what it is you aren't making the schedule for.

 

[mudbunny]

Well, just to pick two, but they're pretty relevant , the old dungeon and dragon in print did this. They told us what next month was going to be in the back of the magazine.

EDIT: Found another one (wanted to check first). Kobold Quarterly...THE in print D&D magazine also has a "next issue" list. (And that's a magazine that comes out every three months...talk about foresight and planning!)

I stand corrected. That being said, other large magazines that I have been subscribed to or bought recently (Time Magazine, Gold Magazine, Golf Digest) do not. In any case, it is a moot point, as I pointed out, they said they were going to do something, they should be able to, within reason, meet those expectations that they set up themselves.

Also, Mudbunny more personally, am I misremembering them NOT doing this from the start, and only beginning to do it after the community (including yourself and myself) rallied to get some accountability from them, waaay back when the mags were new (to WotC) and pretty sloppy?

Nope. You are not misremembering. Way back when, that was one of the things I (we) regularly told G0 that they should do. I *also* remember telling them that if they are putting it up, they need to ensure that they will be able to get them out. A second thing I remember saying was "no matter how big you put the caveat that some things may be delayed or canceled, people will still take what is written on the web page as gospel from on high."

Now, that being said, I think that it is significant that it was noted in the column about the cancellation of the compilations that one of their goals is to get a couple of weeks backlog in the hopper. If they can manage, I think that it will be a good thing.

I also hope that, seeing as how they are moving the magazines further from "print magazine in digital format" to "digital magazine", they take advantage of the possibilities that are offered to them that way. (tags, searching, etc)

 

[Jeffrey]

In how many other magazines do we know, weeks ahead of time, when articles are going to be published? (serious question...)

In all of the magazines that i have ever subscribed to or purchased over the past couple of years, you find out what will be in the next isssue when you get the next issue. You have no idea how many articles were late, how many were not ready for the month or anything like that.

Now, that being said, WotC *did* set themselves up for this to happen from the start by posting what was going to go up and when.

I have several, actually more than several, subscriptions to magazines that include a "next month" sidebar to alert the reader as to what is coming up. Woodworking and model building (US and international), just to name two, I can tell you what will be in the next issue.

It sure seems that WOTC has done what they've wanted to do for a while - simply drop Dragon and Dungeon and replace them with a blog. Running a professional magazine requires many assets and strong management. Posting to a blog does not.

 

[Wicht]

EDIT: Found another one (wanted to check first). Kobold Quarterly...THE in print D&D magazine also has a "next issue" list. (And that's a magazine that comes out every three months...talk about foresight and planning!)

KQ does have a stack of potential articles for the next issue but none of them are absolutely finalized when the previous issue goes to print. The preview of the next issue is extremely tentative. Nonetheless, your point is not completely without merit. Wolfgang and company may not know 100% for sure on the magazines content 3 months in advance but I know from experience that the contracts go out to the writers 1-2 months before print.

But the contracts go out for articles that are already written and in the slush pile. There are some rush articles that get done at the last minute but these tend to be articles associated with some Open Design project or another. For instance, when I was given the "Wreck of the Goodwife article (KQ 13)" I was basically told it had to be done in 1 week in order to make it into the magazine. But thats the exception, not the rule.

So, to summarize: most articles in KQ are written months in advance, placed in the slush pile and then decided on by the editorial team a couple of months before the magazine goes to print. (Any KQ staff with better inside knowledge can correct this if its somewhat off.)

 

[SkidAce]

Remove the publicly announced deadline, and all of a sudden it isn't a tragedy if someone needs to take an extra day to polish up a piece. Conflicting deadlines can be resolved, nobody is as rushed, and overall quality can increase.

What you say CAN be true. But I have also seen it result in overall lazier workers.

It can go either way.

 

[shadzar]

It seems the answer is No, they cannot keep a schedule as you directed me(all) to read the latest news on their DDi update schedule

 

[Jhaelen]

I take it you don't work in a project-based environment?

Look at the world for a moment. Look at anything that's supposed to be "on time". Buses and airplanes. Theater performances. Appointments at the doctor's office. Things run late all the time.

Well, there are exceptions, though. Writers of dime novels, for example, do exactly what Aberzanzorax was suggesting: They're always a couple of issues ahead. If they weren't they couldn't ever go on a vacation.

Or look at (un)reason's thread 'Let's read the entire run'. He's also writing his posts well in advance to be able to post them (more or less) regularly.

So it is possible at least for single-person efforts to always be 'on time'.

 

[billd91]

Remove the publicly announced deadline, and all of a sudden it isn't a tragedy if someone needs to take an extra day to polish up a piece. Conflicting deadlines can be resolved, nobody is as rushed, and overall quality can increase.

But it doesn't, particularly when you have, as you say, conflicting deadlines. If you've got some products with lax deadlines and others with firm deadlines, do the products with lax deadlines get any better? Not really. The priority will always go to the firm deadlines.

What you really want are internal deadlines in advance of the final publication deadline with enough buffer time for late projects to be finished before the final deadline and add a means of escalating the priority of projects not making deadlines. That's where you get that extra day to polish up a piece while still maintaining a publishing schedule and providing good customer service.

 

[mudbunny]

It seems the answer is No, they cannot keep a schedule as you directed me(all) to read the latest news on their DDi update schedule

So you would rather they hold to their schedule and put out a bugged CB update that (potentially) will break the CB as opposed to delaying the update to make sure that the bugs are fixed?

 

[Wicht]

But it doesn't, particularly when you have, as you say, conflicting deadlines. If you've got some products with lax deadlines and others with firm deadlines, do the products with lax deadlines get any better? Not really. The priority will always go to the firm deadlines.

Too true. Lax deadlines promote procrastination.